In watching the press conference held by presidential candidate Sara Hamilton and vice presidential candidate Athan Papailiou, I feel I was lucky enough to witness a truly unique and exciting event. I find their platform to be both distinctive and noteworthy for several reasons. Primarily, as was announced in Wednesday’s press conference, Hamilton and Papailiou are orchestrating a campus-wide outreach effort to all University students by announcing their political platform and urging any individual who agrees with them to come and get involved on their team of candidates. Moving away from more seemingly exclusive slates toward an open, transparent process which involves a much wider cross-section of the student body can only bode well for the future of the ASUO student government. Hamilton and Papailiou’s ticket is also impressive to me not just in its desire to develop a team of candidates who are enthusiastic and aspire to get involved in the ASUO, but also in their ideas of reform. Hamilton and Papailiou have an enthusiastic desire to fix the myriad problems faced by the ASUO, and at senate meetings, I have often been impressed by both their reasoning and thought-provoking responses as to how these reforms should be undertaken. While they still have not come out with a full platform, due to their desire to have the input and involvement of their team of candidates, Hamilton and Papailiou seem to have a bright future ahead of them in the upcoming elections.
Karen Trippe
University student, Senate Seat 11